What was the time-line on getting Hwy 4 widened? I think we need to start studying highway/road projects vs transit projects not just in dollars spent, but years from conception to construction.

Anonymous

That first link, about the park ranger hitting a woman in a crosswalk with an SUV, states “No word yet on the cause of the accident.” Really? Because I’m pretty sure we all know exactly the cause of the accident.

Anonymous

@rickbynight:disqus It was a “tragic accident” that in no way could ever have been prevented. There was nothing the driver could have possibly done to prevent hitting a pedestrian in a crosswalk. And, of course, there is absolutely no way to design our roads better to protect pedestrians and cyclists. And we should all feel sorry for the poor driver who must be so traumatized and especially confused as to why they were just driving along in their 5,000 lbs of metal with hundreds of horsepower and dulled senses and suddenly find themselves plowing into a person. Nothing to see here, move along. Just your usual automobile death and destruction. It was certainly nobody’s fault … though the pedestrian really should pay better attention.

mikesonn

Are we going to get follow ups on this woman getting hit? Follow ups on Saturday’s tragic killing? What about the crash from last year when a older man with a cane was hit by a shuttle bus?

I know this usually a forum for anti-highway talk, but highway 4 in CC county needs it bad, I’ve tried using highway 4 to get to stockton instead of 580 and the area around pittsburg is a sorry excuse for a freeway, especially given the increase in population in outer Contra Costa.

mikesonn

Widen the road, more people move there, commute slows down, repeat.

Anonymous

Yep, it’s like @mikesonn:disqus said; good ‘ol induced demand. @google-dc2adec9358dc5098f133bf152182773:disqus : I sympathize with your concerns, but you have to realize the solution isn’t more, or bigger, roads. We have to ask ourselves: why are so many people driving on this road? It’s because our car-centric urban planning (sprawl) allows people to live dozens and dozens of miles from where they work and play. We all shouldn’t be driving so much; that is the problem. So to fix the congestion on highway 4, we should be asking ourselves: how do we get people to stop driving down this road? In answering that question, you will come up with a real solution.

davistrain

The article on copper thieves reminded us of why they are worse than bank robbers: the expense to repair the damage they cause is two to four orders of magnitude more than what they receive for their stolen wire. As a former electric utility employee and a member of a railway preservation group, it always “makes my day” when one of these scumbags
tries to steal wire that is still energized and gets fried to a crisp.

davistrain

Down here in the Los Angeles area, we have the 710 freeway extension project, which was first proposed about 50 years ago to run between the I-10 (San Bernardino Fwy) and the I-210-CA 134 junction on the west side of Pasadena. This is still a bone of contention among residents of the area, some of whom say,
“So build the @#$% thing already. We’ve had traffic jams on our surface streets for long enough.” While others, especially some residents of South Pasadena, post big “No on 710″ signs and take solemn oaths that they will fight to the last ditch and that the road will be built “over our dead bodies!”

And why are houses built out in the boonies? It’s not because of a car-centric culture. It’s because land cost is low, so new houses can be built there that people can afford.The car culture is a result.

mikesonn

And why is building on that land inexpensive? Subsidized. Why are suburbs going broke all over the country? High maintenance costs for their far flung infrastructure and the bonds taken out to pay for them. Why is gas cheap? Subsidized. Why are highways not all toll roads? Subsidized.
You have an interesting definition of low costs.

Anonymous

@p_chazz:disqus I don’t disagree that people move to the suburbs because housing/land is cheaper, but you simply can’t get there without the car. The land where the suburbs are was there 100 years ago, but the only reason there were no suburbs then was because there was no (cheap and quick) way to get there. The car changed all that. Especially when the majority of the costs to society of the car are externalized. So I still stick to my point that the car is the enabler here.

p_chazz – false economy, Cheaper house, expensive tansportation costs – both in time and money. The annoying part is that some of the transportation cost is borne by all of us in the form of taxes.

Widening the road is a giveaway from those who choose to spend their money on more geographically appropriate housing.

Anonymous

You need to edit or remove this post. It is barbaric to express glee that a thief gets electrocuted in the process. Why doesn’t streetsblog have a flagging option so that we can alert the editor/moderator of inappropriate comments?

mikesonn

There is one, only on the browser though, not mobile.

http://twitter.com/murphstahoe murphstahoe

j

davistrain

I’m just telling it like it is–that’s how I feel about these low-lifes. Some of them even go into cemeteries and steal bronze memorial markers. Here in Southern California, they’ve stolen bronze public artwork, including a memorial to George Freeth, a pioneer in the establishment of lifeguard service. Once again, the cost of
the damage far outweighs the ill-gotten gains of the thieves, and if one of them gets punished by the laws of physics, it saves the taxpayers the cost of a trial. I’m actually a liberal on many subjects, but these depredations put me on the side of condign punishment.